Alitalia unveiled plans to increase its cargo operations as part of a strategy to return to profitability in 2017 following years of losses, billions of dollars of state subsidies and a narrow escape from bankruptcy.

Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest, ending a two-year battle between the two parties.

The U.S. ocean container trade via European ports, including transshipments, increased 3.8 percent year-over-year to 4.6 million laden 20-foot-equivalent units in the 12 months ending March 2014, according to PIERS, the data division of JOC Group.

Etihad Airways is on the verge of buying a 49 percent stake in Italy’s financially troubled national airline Alitalia in a move that would increase the Abu Dhabi-based carrier’s access to Europe’s second largest air freight market.